Innovation is a great thing, and strides have been made in rock climbing because of it. And while I have no doubt all you beginners are bright folks and some of you are even true geniuses and rocket scientists in your own right - but...

!!!PLEASE DON'T TRY TO REINVENT OR INNOVATE THE BASIC MECHANICS AND CONVENTIONS OF CLIMBING GEAR USE AS A BEGINNER!!!

Do yourself, everyone around you, and all of us here a favor and just focus on the basics of existing best practices in rock climbing as they currently exist. This is a sport where you want to drill those home and hone them down as quickly and reliably as possible and then move on to developing a solid foundation of the full range of today's best practices.

Climbing is not a sport to attempt to be 'clever' at, to 'innovate', or to develop alternative ways of using our gear as a beginner. We're seeing way too much of that of late on RC and it's beginning to be a worrisome trend that will eventually cost a life or two. Avoid being a candidate for this year's Darwin Awards and just learn the traditional best practices of the sport.

Do that for about 5-10 years of extensive yardage and experience on stone and then you can think about it. But even then most of us don't stray far from what we all agree works - leaps like clean pro, cams, and grigris do happen - but they are rare exceptions; most innovation in the sport comes in slow, incremental tweaks.

There is little or nothing to be gained by being 'clever' as a beginner and much to lose. So please just focus on learning the basics and mastering the best practices as they are until you are well along in the sport.